Factory loads and development

[vinny1892]

Hi im trying to figure out how the factory comes up with rounds. Are they based off of pressure only or accuracy or both. Second im trying to get my revolver to shoot more Accuratly with my hand loads. I ran out of adjustment to raise the front sight so i have to aim high to hit dead nuts. Im pushing a 230 gr boolit with 10 gr of universal powder behind it. Fps are unknown. The pistol is a ruger blackhawk in 45 colt 7.5 inch barrel. Any advise to solve this issue would be great thanks.

[Dusty Bannister]

Im pushing a 230 gr boolit with 10 gr of universal powder behind it. Fps are unknown. The pistol is a ruger blackhawk in 45 colt 7.5 inch barrel. Any advise to solve this issue would be great thanks.

"Pushing" appears to be entirely correct. The Hodgdon reloading manual suggests a max of 8.1 grains of Universal with the 230 grain cast lead bullet.

If you raise the front sight, the muzzle will be pointing lower. Maybe you are intending to raise the bullet impact on the target and if so, you raise the rear sight. The 230 grain bullet is light and fast so it will be hitting low on the target anyway. Be clear in what you are trying to do.

[Lloyd Smale]

heavier bullets shoot higher then lighter in the same barrel length because there is more muzzle flip. Same reason longer barrels seem to shoot the same load higher. Long barrel dwell time allows the barrel to flip higher with the bullet still in the bore. So fast light bullets shoot the lowest and slow heavies will usually shoot the highest. contrary to what makes sense to most if you want to lower that bullets impact you need to speed it up a tad, go with a lighter bullet or shorten your barrel or get a lower front or a higher rear sight.

[vinny1892]

Im sorry i mistyped yes im talking about the rear sight. Thank you for correcting me

[MT Gianni]

I believe factory loads are based on velocity and smallest deviation between loads on a chronograph. Then they put out bids for whatever powder meets that specification. It may or may not be a canister powder sold to reloaders or even manufactured by said company's other branches.

[runfiverun]

they meet a pressure window with the powder they get out of the train cars.
they order powder by burn rate and it comes close from the powder company.
for instance they say send us a trainload of 4895, when it gets there it might be 3031 or 4064 speed.
so they test the lot and come up with a load near a safe working max pressure.

[fecmech]

When you line up the front and rear sight is the top of the front sight even with the top of the rear sight, not down in the notch. Are you sure you are not flinching? Randomly load a couple empty chambers,spin the cylinder so you don't know where they are and see what happens when you pull the trigger on an empty chamber. If the front sight drops in the notch you have a flinch or poor trigger control. Good luck

[JSnover]

It might be as simple as shifting your grip a little.

[vinny1892]

When you line up the front and rear sight is the top of the front sight even with the top of the rear sight, not down in the notch. Are you sure you are not flinching? Randomly load a couple empty chambers,spin the cylinder so you don't know where they are and see what happens when you pull the trigger on an empty chamber. If the front sight drops in the notch you have a flinch or poor trigger control. Good luck. Yes the front sight is even with rear. And the best groups i can do at 15 yrds is 2.5 inch groups they just are 4plus inches low and i cant adjust anymore

[Echo]

You are saying the rear sight is up as far as it will go, right?

[vinny1892]

Yup anymore and the sight will fall off

[Dusty Bannister]

Back to the starting point. You say 2 1/2 inch groups at 15 yards. Do you do this with factory loads, or better and exactly how much better.
Light bullets for caliber will normally shoot lower on the target in longer barrels.
What is the source of your data that says to use 10 grains of Universal with a 230 grain cast lead bullet?
Is your shooting freehand one handed, two handed, or two handed off sand bags or a rest?

It might be that if you are only going to shoot light bullets, you may consider replacing the front sight blade or shortening the front sight if that is an option with your revolver. That seems to be an unusually heavy load for that light cast bullet so maybe just using a moderate load within the recommended data from a reloading manual will improve both the group and the location of the bullet impact.

[KCSO]

Get the book by Ed Matunas and you will get all the info, he was Winchester's ammo guy IIRR.

[vinny1892]

Id shoot two handed off a solid rest. Im going to try my factory loads and see wat they do and my data comes from handloads.com as ruger only loads. I might try using a jacketed bullet and use a different data sight for my reloading my lyman reloading book is old and doesnt have much to offer for the load i want to produce.

[44MAG#1]

With the rear sight at a given setting adding height to the front will lower impact taking away height of the front will raise the impact. With a given front sight height lowering the rear will lower impact and raising the rear will raise the impact. With that known and you have the rear at max height with the impact still too low you will need to take away height of the front. All that requires is a good file and some cold blue.
But you don't need to hit as you call it "dead nuts" to work up a good load accuracy wise which you don't have now if you are shooting 2.5 inch groups at 15 yards.
Work up a better load or two accuracy wise before using the file. Be sure to adjust your rear down to a few clicks off bottom so you will have adjustment down if you will ever need it.
Try a heavy bullet before you start filing in case you ever want to use something in the 300 to 325 gr weight.
None of this is rocket science intelligence.

[mdi]

Get the book by Ed Matunas and you will get all the info, he was Winchester's ammo guy IIRR. Which one? Title?

Thanx...

[Grmps]

I assume that you have already throated and slugged your revolver and are sizing the lead appropriately.
If this is off nothing else will your best results.